nahlin luxusyacht

• Recent Projects
• Yacht Exterior Design
• Yacht Interior Design
• Project Management
• Owner Representation
• Yacht Salvage

NAHLIN – CLASSIC MOTOR YACHT

In the summer of 2010 Nahlin steamed into Dartmouth, the first time she had entered a British port under her own steam since leaving for Romania in 1937. This was the culmination of the largest classic yacht restoration project ever undertaken and G.L. Watson & Co. acted as Owners’ Representative, Design Authority, Exterior Designer, Yacht Manager and Interior Designer of Crew & Service Areas.

Beyond the five years of incredible work that preceded the well publicised return to British waters there had been a 15 year campaign to save this preeminent classic yacht in which G. L. Watson & Co. played a leading role.

In 1929 G.L. Watson & Co. was commissioned by the heiress Lady Yule to design a steam yacht that would permit her to “visit every part of the globe she desired”. Following in a line of acknowledged classics we produced a design which was at the pinnacle of the evolution of clipper bow and counter stern steam yachts.

Clyde-built

Clyde-built by John Brown & Co., Nahlin’s elegance was acclaimed in her day and, with her extraordinary survival to the 21st century, she remains the ultimate classic power-yacht. As John Brown & Company’s Hull Number 533, Nahlin immediately preceded Cunard’s iconic liner the Queen Mary .  John Brown & Company were world leaders in shipbuilding and at the epicentre of maritime engineering. Along with the yard’s Queen Mary , QE II and Royal Yacht Britannia , Nahlin is an icon of engineering excellence.

Lady Yule recruited most of her crew from the Clyde and Western Isles of Scotland and their families’ historic photographs and memories, along with material from museums and archives of Clydebank and Glasgow, were invaluable in the restoration project.

Lady Yule (1930-1936)

Lady Yule was heiress to a considerable fortune, but in her own right she is known as one of the founders of the British film industry and was a major partner in Pinewood Studios along with J. Arthur Rank and John Corefield. An accomplished horsewoman she founded the Hanstead Stud Stables, endowed one of the first dedicated veterinary hospitals and several animal sanctuaries both in the UK and abroad.

Over the course of six years Lady Yule made several extended cruises, including a circumnavigation. In 1932 she wrote to  Nahlin’s designer James Rennie Barnett, senior partner of G.L. Watson & Co., that Nahlin was “the most beautiful yacht in the world, and the most seaworthy”. In 1936 having seen “every corner of the globe she desired to visit”, Lady Yule eventually made Nahlin available for charter or sale.

The Royal Yacht (1936-1939)

As the premier British yacht of the day, King Edward VIII chartered Nahlin in August of 1936 for a private cruise. The presence of Wallis Simpson aboard attracted great media attention. These news reports also brought Nahlin to the attention of King Carol II of Romania who acquired her in 1937. Less than two years later, with the outbreak of war, King Carol quit his throne and Nahlin was left on the backwaters of the Danube. Ironically, this was to be Nahlin’s salvation. Unlike many pre-war yachts, Nahlin was neither requisitioned for the war effort, nor modernised in the post war era. Instead she survived largely unmodified.

RESCUE (1988-1999)

In 1988 William Collier, a young yachtsman with a passion for classic boats, had recently moved to the south of France and with the encouragement of broker Nicholas Edmiston he set about investigating Nahlin’s fate. Pre-revolution Romania was largely closed to visitors, but with the aid of a Student Visa and a fair amount of pluck, Collier discovered Nahlin operating as a floating restaurant on the banks of the Danube. She was in a perilous state but, despite neglect, Nahlin’s beauty shone through. Inspired by Collier’s photographs the pair set about her rescue. With the collapse of the Soviet block and the Romanian revolution the yacht was sold to a privatised company. Edmiston and Collier began the hard task of her purchase & repatriation. With the volatile post-communist political situation there was much frustration, but finally in 1999 Nahlin returned to British waters and today Nahlin is once again registered in her home port of Glasgow.

Stabilisation & Archiving (1999-2005)

In the years following her return to the UK, G.L. Watson & Co engaged in a comprehensive programme to stabilise her condition, document all surviving material and  to prepare her for restoration. The ship was dry-docked and her hull comprehensively surveyed. Over 450 tons of debris and contaminants were removed. The surviving interior was surveyed, and CAD drawings produced of interior designs and panelling schemes. Casts were made to record delicate plaster mouldings and enrichments.

YACHT RESTORATION (2005-2010)

In the summer of 2010 Nahlin was re-commissioned following a total restoration under the supervision of the vessel’s original designers G.L. Watson & Co.  The first phase of restoration work on the hull was carried out by Nobiskrug shipyard in Rendsburg with the subsequent engineering and fit-out at Blohm & Voss Repair GmbH in Hamburg. Participating in the project were firms from across the UK, Europe and beyond, including Scottish and Merseyside engineering companies who had supplied John Brown’s some eighty years ago. The standards achieved during this yacht restoration broke new ground in restoration quality and have revealed the original beauty of this acclaimed classic. The re-commissioning of Nahlin in the summer of 2010 brought the best possible conclusion to a twenty year plus campaign to save this preeminent classic yacht.

G.L. Watson & Co. Ltd. 20-23 Woodside Place, Glasgow G3 7QL, Scotland

Tel: +44 (141) 501 0480

Find us on Facebook & Twitter

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

From Edward VIII to James Dyson: the yacht that tells a tale of British wealth

The fortunes of industry and a handful of ultra-rich individuals are woven through the history of the Nahlin

I n the early years of this century, soon after he began moving production of his bagless vacuum cleaner from Wiltshire to south-east Asia , James Dyson bought a superb yacht. The Nahlin is exemplary in the beauty of its lines and instructive in its history, though how much of this history Dyson understands or relishes is hard to know. Despite spending a fortune (at least £25m) on its restoration, Dyson has never talked publicly about his yacht, no more than he has about his purchase of Singapore’s most expensive flat (£43m) and its sale soon after, at a loss. For a time, a kind of omertà prevailed about the vessel’s ownership among its team of restorers, though to own and care for such an elegant piece of naval architecture would surely be no shame.

What Dyson certainly knows is that it was on the Nahlin that King Edward VIII and Mrs Wallis Simpson shed any discretion and “came out” as a couple – a relationship reported across the world, though not at the time in Britain – precipitating the crisis that ended with the king’s abdication a few months later, in December 1936. “The cruise of the Nahlin” became an inevitable chapter in any telling of the event, though how the king came to be aboard such a mysteriously named vessel tended to be overlooked. In fact, the name is said to have Native American origins, and reportedly means “fleet of foot” – the yacht’s figurehead wears a chieftain’s headdress – and the king was aboard because the Foreign Office, worried by social unrest in France, had warned against his original plan to rent a villa there.

So instead he rented the Nahlin, to avoid the fuss that a voyage in the royal yacht, the Victoria and Albert, would create and perhaps also because the Nahlin, commissioned only six years earlier, appealed to his appetite for cocktail modernity. Fuss, however, was unavoidable. At Šibenik, the Dalmatian port where the king and Mrs Simpson boarded the yacht, an exuberant crowd of 20,000 turned up and (thanks to reports in the American press) showed as much interest in her as in him; at sea, two Royal Navy destroyers, the Grafton and the Glowworm, accompanied the Nahlin wherever she went – a leisurely August progress down the Adriatic, through the Corinth canal to the Greek islands, and eventually to Istanbul. The “nanny-boats”, as Lady Diana Cooper called them; she and a few other prominent society figures were also aboard, as well as a crew around 60-strong.

Of course, the term yacht is misleading. No sails have ever been involved. The Nahlin, like its bland modern equivalents, was a yacht only in the sense that its sole purpose was its owner’s pleasure, the owner being in this case a Lady Yule. Launched in 1930 from the Clydebank shipyard of John Brown & Co – builder of celebrated liners such as Cunard’s two Queens – it measures 300ft in length and was originally powered by four steam turbines. Characteristically of the steam yacht, of which the Nahlin was among the very last examples, its hull preserves elements of the sailing ship, with a curved clipper bow and a counter stern, each stretching well beyond the waterline. The shape and colour of steam yachts – white hull, cream funnel – made people think of swans. Their costs and months of idleness meant they were an indulgence that only the richest magnates on either side of the Atlantic could afford: JP Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Sir Thomas Lipton.

And Lady Yule? She was thought to be the richest widow in England. How had she come by her money? Jute, was the short answer. A longer one involves a story of British innovation and industrial expansion overseas that Dyson might recognise, beginning in the 1820s when Dundee manufacturers began to look for an alternative to hemp in the making of sacking, rope and sailcloth. Jute was cheap and reliably available from Bengal in British India, but it was tough and brittle and broke easily when it was spun or woven. After years of experiment, it was successfully made pliable by the application of whale oil, of which Dundee as a whaling port had no shortage.

The demand for jute fabric and jute rope boomed, and Dundee enjoyed a near monopoly until the 1870s, when British industrialists began to open jute mills in Bengal itself because, as economic historian Morris D Morris has pointed out, “jute manufacturing was not a complicated process [and] cheap labour was a very great advantage”. Bengal had five jute mills in 1870 and 69 jute mills in 1914, as cheaper Indian-made jute conquered foreign markets previously served by Dundee, and exports of jute cloth from India grew 272 times over the same period; even better was to come with the first world war, when the word “sandbag” must have sounded like a ringing cash register in the inner ear of every Indian jute trader.

The Yule family benefited enormously. Annie Henrietta (Lady) Yule was the daughter of Andrew Yule, the son of a small-town draper in Scotland who arrived in Kolkata (then Calcutta) in 1863 as an agent representing several British firms, and whose family eventually owned tea estates, coalmines, cotton and flour mills, railways, and 2,400 square miles of productive land – as well as the jute mills that Andrew Yule’s nephew and successor, Sir David Yule, had taken an especial interest in expanding. Sir David was a shy workaholic who rarely left Kolkata. Aged 42, he married another Yule, his cousin Annie Henrietta. When he died in 1928, soon after ordering his steam yacht, the Times described him as“one of the wealthiest men, if not the wealthiest man, in the country”.

Where did it all go? Lady Yule and her daughter Gladys made a long and expensive world cruise in the Nahlin in the early 1930s. She invested heavily and sometimes unwisely in the British film industry; she opened a stud farm. She had, in the words of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, “strong religious opinions, a sharp tongue, and imperious habits”. Her attempt to force teetotalism on the Nahlin’ s crew was probably not a success. At any rate she sold the ship to King Carol II of Romania in 1937, after which the Nahlin disappeared from the map of British interests – missing, presumed dead – until an English yacht broker, Nicholas Edmiston, discovered it moored in the Danube as a floating restaurant in the 1990s. It passed briefly through the ownership of another Brexit-supporting tycoon, Sir Anthony Bamford, before Dyson bought it in 2006.

This week, thanks to the wonder of digital ship location, I traced the yacht’s present whereabouts to the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg; it had reached there from the Caribbean via Gibraltar and Falmouth. Blohm+Voss spent millions of Dyson’s money when the yacht was first restored and re-engined, and it may be there now for its annual overhaul. The shipyard is old and distinguished, and still fills the harbour with the sounds of building and repair work. They even build luxury yachts there; the clients include Roman Abramovich and Vladimir Putin.

Nothing remains of the Nahlin’s birthplace at Clydebank, apart from a large crane that stands useless at the river’s edge. Ships, like bagless vacuum cleaners and jute, are made elsewhere.

Ian Jack is a Guardian columnist

• James Dyson
• Shipping industry

Most viewed

• Yachts For Charter
• Luxury Yachts For Sale
• Find Yacht Brokers
• Yachting Destination Guides
• Superyacht Directory
• Superyacht News & Events
• Top 100 Yachts
• Yacht Builders
• Yacht Refit
• Naval Architects
• Exterior Designers
• Interior Designers
• Superyacht Fleet A-Z
• Luxury Yachts

Nahlin Yacht (ex: Libertatea, Transilvania, Rasaritul, Nahlin, Luceafarul)

Motor Yacht Nahlin

Nahlin (formerly libertatea) is a 91.44m motor yacht, custom built in 1930 by john brown & company in clydebank ( united kingdom ). this luxury vessel's sophisticated exterior design and engineering are the work of g.l. watson & co.. she was last refitted in 2008..

Nahlin yacht has a steel hull with a steel superstructure with a beam of 12.00m  (39'4"ft) and a 4.50m  (14'9"ft) draft .

Performance + Capabilities

Nahlin is capable of 18.00 knots flat out, with a cruising speed of 15.00 15.00 knots.

Nahlin Accommodation

Nahlin offers accommodation for up to 14 guests . She is also capable of carrying up to 47 crew onboard to ensure a relaxed luxury yacht experience.

Nahlin is currently not available for Charter on Superyachts.com. Click here to view similar Yachts Available for Charter.

• More Details:
• Specifications
• Video Clips

Builder: John Brown & Company

Exterior Designer: G.L. Watson & Co.

Naval Architect: G.L. Watson & Co.

Interior Designer: Sir Charles Allom

• Company Profile
• View Launched Yachts
• Advertise with us
• Terms of Use
• User Conduct
• Registered Users
• Privacy Policy

©2009 Superyachts.com Ltd. All rights reserved.

©2011 Design Updated by Superyachts.com Ltd.

Please use a modern browser to view this website. Some elements might not work as expected when using Internet Explorer.

• Landing Page
• Luxury Yacht Vacation Types
• Corporate Yacht Charter
• Tailor Made Vacations
• Luxury Exploration Vacations
• View All 3565
• Motor Yachts
• Sailing Yachts
• Classic Yachts
• Catamaran Yachts
• Filter By Destination
• More Filters
• Latest Reviews
• Charter Special Offers
• Destination Guides
• Inspiration & Features
• Mediterranean Charter Yachts
• France Charter Yachts
• Italy Charter Yachts
• Croatia Charter Yachts
• Greece Charter Yachts
• Turkey Charter Yachts
• Bahamas Charter Yachts
• Caribbean Charter Yachts
• Australia Charter Yachts
• Thailand Charter Yachts
• Dubai Charter Yachts
• Destination News
• New To Fleet
• Charter Fleet Updates
• Special Offers
• Industry News
• Yacht Shows
• Corporate Charter
• Finding a Yacht Broker
• Charter Preferences
• Questions & Answers
• Add my yacht

NOT FOR CHARTER *

This Yacht is not for Charter*

SIMILAR YACHTS FOR CHARTER

View Similar Yachts

Or View All luxury yachts for charter

• Luxury Charter Yachts
• Motor Yachts for Charter
• Amenities & Toys

NAHLIN yacht NOT for charter*

91.44m  /  300' | john brown & sons | 1930 / 2009.

Owner & Guests

• Previous Yacht

Special Features:

• Lloyds Register classification
• Up to 47 crew
• Sleeps 14 overnight

The 91.44m/300' classic yacht 'Nahlin' (ex. Nahlin) was built by John Brown & Sons at their Clydebank shipyard. Her interior is styled by design house Sir Charles Allom and she was delivered to her owner in July 1930. This luxury vessel's exterior design is the work of G.L. Watson & Co. and she was last refitted in 2009.

Guest Accommodation

Nahlin has been designed to comfortably accommodate up to 14 guests in 7 suites. She is also capable of carrying up to 47 crew onboard to ensure a relaxed luxury yacht experience.

Range & Performance

Nahlin is built with a steel hull and steel superstructure, with teak decks. Powered by twin coal MTU (16V 4000 M60) 16-cylinder 2,502hp engines running at 1800rpm, she reaches a maximum speed of 18 knots. She was built to Lloyds Register classification society rules.

*Charter Nahlin Motor Yacht

Motor yacht Nahlin is currently not believed to be available for private Charter. To view similar yachts for charter , or contact your Yacht Charter Broker for information about renting a luxury charter yacht.

Nahlin Yacht Owner, Captain or marketing company

'Yacht Charter Fleet' is a free information service, if your yacht is available for charter please contact us with details and photos and we will update our records.

Nahlin Photos

NOTE to U.S. Customs & Border Protection

Specification

M/Y Nahlin

SIMILAR LUXURY YACHTS FOR CHARTER

Here are a selection of superyachts which are similar to Nahlin yacht which are believed to be available for charter. To view all similar luxury charter yachts click on the button below.

Christina O

99m | Canadian Vickers

from $762,000 p/week ♦︎

90m | Corsair Yachts

from $497,000 p/week

SS Delphine

79m | Great Lakes Ew

from $436,000 p/week ♦︎

As Featured In

The YachtCharterFleet Difference

YachtCharterFleet makes it easy to find the yacht charter vacation that is right for you. We combine thousands of yacht listings with local destination information, sample itineraries and experiences to deliver the world's most comprehensive yacht charter website.

San Francisco

• Like us on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter
• Follow us on Instagram
• Find us on LinkedIn
• Add My Yacht
• Affiliates & Partners

Popular Destinations & Events

• St Tropez Yacht Charter
• Monaco Yacht Charter
• St Barts Yacht Charter
• Greece Yacht Charter
• Mykonos Yacht Charter
• Caribbean Yacht Charter

Featured Charter Yachts

• Maltese Falcon Yacht Charter
• Wheels Yacht Charter
• Victorious Yacht Charter
• Andrea Yacht Charter
• Titania Yacht Charter
• Ahpo Yacht Charter

Receive our latest offers, trends and stories direct to your inbox.

Please enter a valid e-mail.

Thanks for subscribing.

Search for Yachts, Destinations, Events, News... everything related to Luxury Yachts for Charter.

Yachts in your shortlist

Nahlin (yacht)

Nahlin is a luxury yacht that was built in Scotland in 1930. She was a turbine -powered steam yacht until 2005, when she was re-fitted with a diesel–electric powertrain . Her current owners are Sir James and Lady Dyson.

Romanian service

Restoration as nahlin, bibliography, external links.

Nahlin spent her early years in private British ownership. In 1936 King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson cruised parts of the Mediterranean on her, causing the scandal that led to the abdication crisis .

In 1937 she became the royal yacht of King Carol II of Romania , who renamed her Luceafărul . Later in Romanian service she was renamed Răsăritul , and then Transilvania . In 1947 the Kingdom of Romania became a Communist republic , and in 1948 the yacht was renamed Libertatea .

In 1999 the yacht was brought back to the United Kingdom , and her original name Nahlin was reinstated. She spent most of the 2010s in Germany being restored. She is now back in use as a private luxury yacht.

John Brown & Company built the yacht in 1930 in Clydebank , Glasgow , for the Scottish heiress, financier and horse breeder Lady Yule . She was built as yard number 533, launched on 28 April as Nahlin , and completed in 10 July. [1] Yule's daughter Gladys launched her. Nahlin is a native American word meaning "swift runner" or "fleet of foot". [ clarification needed ] [2] Her figurehead is a representation of a native American wearing a feather headdress . [3] [4] [5]

Nahlin ' s lengths were 300   ft (91.4   m) overall and 268.3   ft (81.8   m) registered. Her beam was 36.2   ft (11.0   m) and her depth was 18.8   ft (5.7   m) . As built, her tonnages were 1,392   GRT and 556   NRT . [6]

GL Watson & Co were her naval architects , [7] and Sir Charles Allom was her interior designer . [8] She was furnished with six en-suite staterooms for guests, a gymnasium, a ladies' sitting room with sea views on three sides, and a library on the shade deck. [9]

Nahlin has twin screws . Her original engines were a set of four Brown-Curtis stream turbines, two driving each propeller via single-reduction gearing . The combined power of her four engines was rated at 3,300 shp . [6] Steam was supplied by two Yarrow boilers with oil -burning furnaces. [1]

Lady Yule registered Nahlin at Glasgow . The yacht's United Kingdom official number was 161925. Until 1934 her code letters were LGFP, and until 1937 her wireless telegraph call sign was GLFB. [6]

In August 1930 Lady Yule and her daughter made a World cruise aboard Nahlin . They visited Australia , and in 1931 reached New Zealand . In 1933 in Miami the yacht's speedboat won an All Comers race. [10]

Nahlin was among the civilian ships that attended a Naval Review in 1935 to mark the Silver Jubilee of George V . Lady Yule invited Edward, Prince of Wales, aboard, and he "greatly admired" the yacht. [11]

In January 1936 George V died, and the Prince of Wales succeeded his father as King Edward VIII. That August, Edward chartered Nahlin for a cruise from Šibenik on the Adriatic Sea , [11] via the Corinth Canal and Aegean Sea , to Istanbul . He chose Nahlin rather than the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert to "enable the avoidance of formality accorded to Royalty", because Wallis Simpson accompanied him. [12] [13] The Royal Navy destroyers HMS   Glowworm and Grafton escorted the yacht. [3] [14] [15]

Lady Yule was a teetotaller , so Nahlin had nowhere to store or serve alcoholic drinks. Edward converted the library by replacing the books with bottles. [16]

Edward and Mrs Simpson were photographed together on their cruise. UK newspapers declined to published the photos, but they became front page news in the United States [4] and mainland Europe. This "alerted the World's media to the impending abdication crisis." [17] [18]

In 1937 King Carol II of Romania bought the yacht for £120,000 and renamed her Luceafărul , which is Romanian for " Evening Star ". Later she was renamed Răsăritul (" Sunrise "), and then Transilvania after the province of Transylvania , which had been transferred from Hungary to Romania after the First World War. In September 1940 Carol II was forced to abdicate in favour of his son Michael , and that November Romania joined the Axis powers . The yacht was transferred to the Ministry of Culture , and laid up until after the war.

In December 1947 King Michael was forced to abdicate, and the Socialist Republic of Romania was established. In 1948 the yacht was transferred to the Romanian Navy and renamed Libertatea . She later became a museum ship , and then a floating restaurant moored at Galați on the Danube . [4] [19] [20]

At the end of 1989 Communism was overthrown in Romania . Libertatea was classified as cultural patrimony , but dubiously became property of a small Romanian private company called SC Regal SA Galaţi. [4] In the 1990s a British couple, Bill & Laurel Cooper , sailed a Dutch barge down the Danube. In a book published in 1997 they reported that at Galaţi " Ceaușescu 's classic motor yacht dripped and rusted as the quay, beautiful, but neglected since the fall of his regime". [21]

In 1998 the yacht broker Nicholas Edmiston bought Libertatea for $265,000. The Romanian Government issued a temporary permit for her to be taken out of Romania, supposedly to be restored by her builders GL Watson & Co, who still had her original plans. She was taken to Falmouth, Cornwall aboard the heavy-lift ship Swift . [4] [22] [23]

The yacht was then towed to Devonport , Plymouth and then to Clarence Dock, Liverpool for restoration. [24] [25] [26] The first phase of her restoration was delayed when her restorer, Cammell Laird , went into receivership in 2001. [1] She ceased to be Romanian cultural patrimony in 2002. [ citation needed ]

On 27 July 2005 the yacht left Liverpool for Rendsburg in Germany, where Nobiskrug continued her refit . [27] As refitted, she has berths for 14 passengers and up to 47 crew. [8] She was then taken to Hamburg , where Blohm+Voss replaced her steam turbines with a new diesel-electric powertrain. [27] MTU Friedrichshafen supplied a pair of 16-cylinder diesel engines, each of which is rated at 2,502   bhp (1,866   kW) . [8] They drive a pair of electric generators, which in turn drive a pair of electric motors, one powering each screw. Each electric motor is rated at 2,000   kW (2,700   hp) . [1] [8] During restoration, Nahlin ' s original mahogany -hulled 6.4   m (21   ft) ship-to-shore tender , believed lost for 60 years, was found in Scotland, having been fully restored by owner Willie McCullough. It has now been reunited with the yacht. [25]

In 2006 Sir James and Lady Dyson acquired the yacht from Anthony Bamford . [28] [29] [30] In 2010 she was registered in Glasgow under her original name Nahlin , and returned to service. [19] [31] [32]

• List of motor yachts by length

Related Research Articles

Lady Victoria Patricia Helena Elizabeth Ramsay was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Upon her marriage to Alexander Ramsay, she relinquished her title of a British princess and the style of Royal Highness .

Annie Henrietta Yule, Lady Yule was a British film financier and a breeder of Arabian horses. She co-founded the British National Films Company and Hanstead Stud, and commissioned the superyachts of her day.

The British National Films Company was formed in England in 1934 by J. Arthur Rank, Lady Annie Henrietta Yule of Bricket Wood, and producer John Corfield.

HMS Grafton (H89) was a G-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during the mid-1930s. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939 the ship spent considerable time in Spanish waters, enforcing the non-intervention measures agreed by Britain and France. After the beginning of World War II she was transferred from the Mediterranean Fleet to Great Britain for escort and contraband inspection duties. Grafton was refitting when the Norwegian Campaign began in April 1940, but the ship escorted convoys to Norway once her refit was completed. She evacuated British troops from the Dunkirk bridgehead in May, but was sunk by a German submarine after she stopped to rescue survivors from another British destroyer.

Edward & Mrs. Simpson is a seven-part British television series that dramatises the events leading to the 1936 abdication of King Edward VIII, who gave up his throne to marry the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson.

HMY Victoria and Albert was a royal yacht of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. The yacht was designed by the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy Sir William White, launched in 1899 and ready for service in 1901. This was the third yacht to be named Victoria and Albert and she was fitted with steam engines fired by Belleville water-tube boilers. She served four sovereigns, and was decommissioned as royal yacht in 1939, served in the Second World War, and was broken up in 1954.

HMY Alexandra was a steamship built as a British royal yacht, completed in 1908. Normally transporting Britain's royal family to European ports, Alexandra served as a hospital ship during the First World War. After 17 years of British service, she was sold to Norwegian commercial interests in 1925. Renamed Prins Olav , she was first used as a luxury cruise ship on trips to the North Cape, she was converted to take more passengers and cargo. In 1937 she began sailing as a Hurtigruten passenger/cargo ship along the coast of Norway. After being requisitioned by the Norwegian government following the 9 April 1940 German invasion of Norway, she transported troops for the Norwegian war effort. Prins Olav was sunk by German bombers on 9 June 1940, while attempting to escape to the United Kingdom as the Norwegian Campaign was coming to an end.

El Mahrousa , officially renamed for a period of time as El Horreya , is a super yacht that serves as Egypt's presidential yacht, and previously served as the country's royal yacht. She was built by the British ship building firm Samuda Brothers in 1863 to the order of Khedive Ismail Pasha and the ship was handed over to its Egyptian crew two years later.

A & J Inglis, Ltd , was a shipbuilding firm founded by Anthony Inglis and his brother John, engineers and shipbuilders in Glasgow, Scotland in 1862. The firm built over 500 ships in a period of just over 100 years. Their Pointhouse Shipyard was at the confluence of the rivers Clyde and Kelvin. They constructed a wide range of ships, including Clyde steamers, paddle steamers and small ocean liners. In wartime, they built small warships, and in the period after World War II, they built a number of whalers.

Thistle was the unsuccessful Scottish challenger of the seventh America's Cup in 1887 against American defender Volunteer .

A steam yacht is a class of luxury or commercial yacht with primary or secondary steam propulsion in addition to the sails usually carried by yachts.

Glen Strathallan was a British ship originally built as a trawler, but then converted into a private yacht, which also served in the Royal Navy in World War II. She was finally scuttled in 1970 at Plymouth Sound, England as a diver training site.

Edward VIII , later known as the Duke of Windsor , was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 1936 until his abdication in December of the same year.

George Lawley & Son was a shipbuilding firm operating in Massachusetts from 1866 to 1945. It began in Scituate, then moved to Boston. After founder George Lawley (1823–1915) retired in 1890, his son, grandson and great-grandson upheld the business, which continued until 1945. Of the hundreds of ships built by the Lawleys, highlights include the yachts Puritan and Mayflower , respective winners of the 1885 and 1886 America's Cup.

Dieppe was a steam passenger ferry that was built in 1905 for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. She was requisitioned during the First World War for use as a troopship and later as a hospital ship HMS Dieppe , returning to her owners postwar. She passed to the Southern Railway on 1 January 1923. In 1933 she was sold to W E Guinness and converted to a private diesel yacht, Rosaura . She was requisitioned in the Second World War for use as an armed boarding vessel, HMS Rosaura . She struck a mine and sank off Tobruk, Libya on 18 March 1941.

RMS Strathnaver , later SS Strathnaver , was an ocean liner of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O).

SY Liberty was a steam yacht built in 1908 at Leith, Scotland, for Joseph Pulitzer and one of the largest private yachts of its day. She served as a Royal Navy hospital ship during World War I.

Big-game tunny fishing off Scarborough was a sport practised by wealthy aristocrats and military officers mostly in the 1930s. The British Tunny Club was founded in Scarborough in 1933 and had its headquarters there. The Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus Thynnus) is a large and powerful fish, arguably the strongest fish in the world, which is frequently the target of big-game fishermen. Off the Yorkshire coast in that era various records were made for size of tunny caught with rod and line. Tunny was present in the North Sea until the 1950s when commercial herring and mackerel fishing depleted its food supply and it became extirpated.

Lady Hutton is a former luxury yacht built in 1924 at Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft in Kiel, Germany. She has now been converted to a hotel and restaurant ship, riding at anchor at the Riddarholmen in Stockholm since 1982. In addition to its size and proximity to the old city, much of the ship’s fame is tied to Barbara Hutton, for whom the ship is named.

James Rennie Barnett OBE was a Scottish naval architect.

• ↑ "Lady Yule's New Yacht Launched at Clydebank" . The Scotsman . No.   27119. Edinburgh. 29 April 1930. p.   11 . Retrieved 21 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive .
• 1 2 Jack, Ian (15 May 2021). "From Edward VIII to James Dyson: the yacht that tells a tale of British wealth" . The Guardian .
• 1 2 3 4 5 de Bruxelles, Simon (3 December 1999). "Royal yacht to be restored to past glory". The Times . London. p.   12.
• ↑ Richardson, Ian (14 February 2017). "Nahlin" . Shipping Today & Yesterday .
• 1 2 3 Mercantile Navy List . London: Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen. 1930. p.   382 – via Crew List Index Project.
• ↑ Belanyiova, Eva (30 July 2010). "G.L. Watson & Co. designed Super Yacht Nahlin" . CharterWorld . Retrieved 19 April 2014 .
• 1 2 3 4 "Nahlin yacht not for charter" . Yachtcharterfleet.com . Retrieved 14 August 2023 .
• ↑ "Super-yachts steal the show on waterfront" . Herald Express . Torquay. 19 July 2010. [ dead link ]
• ↑ "Gossip of London: Officers of the Nahlin" . Belfast Telegraph . 8 August 1936. p.   6 . Retrieved 22 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
• 1 2 "The King's Holiday Cruise Begins: Yacht Sails For Coast Of Adriatic" . The Mail . Adelaide. 1 August 1936. p.   3 – via Trove .
• ↑ "Wallis Simpson is an ugly American, wrote sailor". The Daily Telegraph . London. 1 November 2010. p.   3.
• ↑ "Maid's letters are insight to feelings toward divorcee". Western Morning News . Plymouth. 25 September 2010. p.   42.
• ↑ "The King's Cruise". The Times . London. 31 July 1936. p.   14.
• ↑ "The King's Holiday" . The Scotsman . No.   29077. Edinburgh. 6 August 1936. p.   8 . Retrieved 21 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
• ↑ Tinniswood, Adrian (2016). The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House Between the Wars . London: Jonathan Cape. p.   221. ISBN   978-0224099455 .
• ↑ Lundy, Iain (3 January 2013). "Pride of the Clyde". Evening Times . Glasgow. p.   16.
• ↑ "Glorious survivors". Evening Times . Glasgow. 6 September 2007. p.   21.
• 1 2 "Dyson's historic mega yacht sails in to become town's big attraction". Western Daily Press . Bristol. 26 July 2010. p.   3.
• ↑ "Sailing out of history". The News Letter . Belfast. 3 December 1999. p.   4.
• ↑ Bill & Laurel Cooper (1997). Back Door to Byzantium . London: Adlard Coles Nautical . p.   222. ISBN   978-0955035104 .
• ↑ Barnicoat, David (12 October 1999). "Steam yacht back in British waters after 60 years". Lloyd's List . London. p.   16.
• ↑ Davies, Caroline (3 December 1999). "Royal yacht saved from scrapyard". The Daily Telegraph . London. p.   15.
• ↑ "Ship with a past set for future glory". The Herald . Glasgow. 3 December 1999. p.   12.
• 1 2 "Reunited after a parting of the waves" . The Herald . Glasgow. 21 August 2000. p.   11.
• ↑ "Windsor 'love boat' full steam ahead for £23 million refit". Evening Standard . London. 16 May 2000. p.   16.
• 1 2 Elson, Peter (14 December 2009). "Shipping Lines". Liverpool Echo . Liverpool. p.   16.
• ↑ Bryant, Miranda (14 August 2013). "Abramovich sunk in battle of superyachts: Emir's 180-metre vessel trumps Chelsea owner's as world's biggest". Evening Standard . London. p.   13.
• ↑ Hoyle, Ben (14 August 2013). "Emir knocks Abramovich off top of mega-yacht league table". The Times . London. p.   3.
• ↑ Peterson-Withorn, Chase. "Billionaire Yacht Tracker" . Forbes . Retrieved 16 August 2018 .
• ↑ Donkin, Richard (21 September 2011). "A piece of sailing heritage comes with a large price tag". Financial Times . London. p.   4.
• ↑ "Nahlin: Classic Motor Yacht" . G.L. Watson & Co. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012 . Retrieved 30 June 2012 .
• Crabtree, R (1975). Royal Yachts of Europe: From the Seventeenth to Twentieth Century . Newton Abbot: David & Charles . ISBN   0715367544 .
• "Nahlin" . Royal Museums Greenwich . – archive of items 1929–37

Casa de Campo Living

Resort community news and resources.

Nahlin, a 300ft steam yacht built in 1930 visits the Marina Casa de Campo

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on X (Opens in new window)

This post is also available in: Spanish

Isn’t she beautiful and graceful? “Nahlin” visited us at the beginning of the year and was docked outside the Marina Casa de Campo because this luxurious lady was too big to come in.

On Friday January 16th the 300ft (91.44m) custom motor yacht  “Nahlin” was here, and even though she was too big to come in, she docked just outside of the Marina Casa de Campo.

Nahlin is a luxury yacht and one of the last of three large steam yachts constructed in the UK. She was built for Lady Annie Henrietta Yule, heiress of Sir David Yule, and was launched in 1930. She is currently owned by British industrial entrepreneur Sir James Dyson, who purchased her from Sir Anthony Bamford, Chairman of JCB. The name Nahlin is taken from the Native American word meaning “fleet of foot” and the yacht has a figurehead depicting a Native American wearing a feathered headdress beneath the bowsprit.

The yacht was bought in 1937 by King Carol II of Romania for £120,000 and renamed Luceafarul (Evening Star), and later Libertatea. When the Romanian monarch abdicated in 1940, she became the property of the Romanian Ministry of Culture and was tied up in the port of Galați on the Danube as a museum and later as a floating restaurant.

“Nahlin” (formerly Libertatea) is a 91.44m (300m) motor yacht built by John Brown & Sons in United Kingdom at their Clydebank shipyard. Last refitted in 201o by Blohm + Voss Shipyards, this luxury vessel’s sophisticated exterior design and engineering are the work of G.L. Watson & Co.. Her interior was designed by Sir Charles Allom.

In 1989 the yacht was rediscovered by luxury yacht broker Nicholas Edmiston who purchased the vessel in 1998 from the Romanian government. The company paid $265.000 for her, scrap metal value. Back in the UK, she underwent a 15-year process of stabilization and a £25 million restoration led by G. L. Watson & Company, and was recommissioned in 2010 as the Nahlin. The refit was undertaken by Nobiskrug at Rendsburg, Germany, and completion was at the Blohm + Voss shipyard, Hamburg, where diesel engines replaced her old steam turbines.

The great “Nahlin” offers accommodation for up to 14 guests . She is also capable of carrying up to 47 crew onboard to ensure a relaxed luxury yacht experience. She has a hull with a steel superstructure and a beam of 12.00m  (39’4″ft) and a 4.50m  (14’9″ft) draft, and is also capable of 18.00 knots flat out, with a cruising speed of 15.00 knots.

Scource: wikipedia.org 

If you missed her, here’s a video of the magnificent yacht:

A few other megayachts we’ve spotted in the Marina Casa de Campo are:

Beautiful megayacht “MY GIRL” Arriving during Semana Santa (Easter week), the mega yacht “MY GIRL”, owned by a wealthy businessman from the United States, is certainly an impressive addition to the Marina Casa de Campo. Click here for photos and the full story! 

370 ft megayacht “Le Grande Bleu” formerly owned by billionaire Ramon Abromovich On Saturday and Sunday the 31st of March and the 1st of April, Casa de Campo villa owners and visitors were treated to the magnificent sight of a very impressive megayacht, “Le Grande Bleu” docked directly opposite Casa de Campo’s Minitas Beach and just off the coast of the exclusive Punta Minitas neighborhood. It’s all glamor and fame here in Casa de Campo! Click here for photos and the full story! 

280 ft superyacht “Vibrant Curiosity” The “Vibrant Curiosity” – at 280ft is the 3rd longest yacht to ever visit the Marina Casa de Campo. Click here for photos and the full story!

The world’s largest single-masted yacht, the “Mirabella V” The magnificent “Mirabella V” is a sloop-rigged super yacht, which was completed and launched in 2003 for Joseph Vittoria, former chairman and CEO of AVIS rental car company, at a cost of more than US$50 million dollars. Click here for photos and the full story !

190ft Mega Yacht “The Ronin” The RONIN, a Lurssen Yacht built in 1993, previously owned by Larry Ellison, the world’s 5th richest man. Click here for photos and the full story!

The 394ft ‘A’ Mega Yacht The ‘A’ is owned by 38 year old Russian billionaire Andrei Melnichenko, was designed by Phillipe Starke, is 394feet and cost 200 million dollars to build! Click here for photos and the full story!

You must be logged in to post a comment.

NAHLIN John Brown & Sons

• Inspiration

NAHLIN has 5 Photos

Nahlin News

Growing superyacht marina options in ...

Similar yachts.

Moonlight II | From EUR€ 645,000/wk

• Yachts >
• All Yachts >
• All Motor Yachts Over 100ft/30m >

If you have any questions about the NAHLIN information page below please contact us .

A Summary of Motor Yacht NAHLIN

John Brown & Sons completed motor yacht NAHLIN in 1930. Therefore, she has the distinction of being built in the United Kingdom. NAHLIN is a yacht which had naval architecture and design finished by G.L. Watson and GL Watson. This superyacht NAHLIN is able to accommodate overnight the number of 14 guests aboard together with around 47 crewmembers. Launched for 1930 the classic interior design showcases the classical sagacity in the designing of Sir Charles Allom.

Construction & Designing for Luxury Yacht NAHLIN

GL Watson was the naval architect firm involved in the formal vessel plans for NAHLIN. Also the company GL Watson successfully worked on this venture. Interior designer Sir Charles Allom was employed for the overall interior styling. In 1930 she was actually launched with accolade in Clydebank and post sea trials and finishing touches was thereafter handed over to the yacht owner. John Brown & Sons completed their new build motor yacht in the United Kingdom. A spacious proportion is manifested with a total beam (width) of 11.03 m / 36.2 ft. With a 4.51m (14.8ft) draught (maximum depth) she is reasonably deep. The material steel was used in the building of the hull of the motor yacht. Her superstructure above deck is fashioned from steelandwood. Over the deck of NAHLIN she is 90.22 (296 ft) in length. In 2008 extra refit work and modernisation was also finished.

The Main Engines And The Speed That M/Y NAHLIN Can Reach:

Connected to her Curtis-Brown engine(s) are twin screw propellers. The main engine of the yacht produces 2200 horse power (or 1619 kilowatts). She is fitted with 4 engines. The total power for the boat is therefore 8800 HP or 6475 KW.

For Superyacht NAHLIN She has Guest Accommodation Capacity For:

Offering cabins for a limit of 14 yacht guests spending the night, the NAHLIN accommodates everyone comfortably. She also requires approximately 47 professional crew to run.

A List of the Specifications of the NAHLIN:

Further information on the yacht.

Her deck material is predominantly a teak deck.

NAHLIN Disclaimer:

The luxury yacht NAHLIN displayed on this page is merely informational and she is not necessarily available for yacht charter or for sale, nor is she represented or marketed in anyway by CharterWorld. This web page and the superyacht information contained herein is not contractual. All yacht specifications and informations are displayed in good faith but CharterWorld does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the current accuracy, completeness, validity, or usefulness of any superyacht information and/or images displayed. All boat information is subject to change without prior notice and may not be current.

Quick Enquiry

91m CUSTOM YACHT | From EUR€ 1,100,000/wk

QUEEN MIRI | From EUR€ 1,125,000/wk

LAUREN L | From EUR€ 695,000/wk

Find anything, super fast.

• Destinations
• Documentaries

Motor Yacht

Nahlin is a custom motor yacht launched in 1930 by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, United Kingdom and most recently refitted in 2008.

Nahlin measures 91.44 metres in length, with a max draft of 4.50 metres and a beam of 12.00 metres. She has a gross tonnage of 1,356 tonnes. She has a deck material of teak.

Nahlin has a steel hull with a steel superstructure.

Her interior design is by Sir Charles Allom.

Nahlin also features naval architecture by G.L. Watson & Co..

Performance and Capabilities

Nahlin has a top speed of 18.00 knots and a cruising speed of 15.00 knots. She is powered by a twin screw propulsion system.

Accommodation

Nahlin accommodates up to 14 guests . She also houses room for up to 47 crew members.

Other Specifications

Nahlin has a hull NB of 540.

Nahlin is a LR class yacht.

• Yacht Builder John Brown & Company No profile available
• Naval Architect G.L. Watson & Co. No profile available
• Exterior Designer G.L. Watson & Co. No profile available
• Interior Designer Sir Charles Allom No profile available

Yacht Specs